Tips are not uncommon in the hotel business. But few are as generous as the one Marriott shareholders received last week. In a financial maneuver that is part of a growing trend, Marriott Corp. said it would spin off its thriving hotel-management division from its debt-laden real estate operations and would award stockholders special tax-free shares in the new company. A number of firms, most recently Sears, that had caught diversification fever during the 1980s are now scrambling to sell ill-fitting or troublesome units.
The move at Marriott was triggered largely by its management's bleak assessment of its money-losing real-estate business....
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